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Summary: Hurrah
Review: Interview w/ revisited, she's back in fine form. Her imagitry will take you there once more. Lestat is back, hurrah.
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Summary: For those who are interested in the paranormal
Review: The Vampire chronicles are my favorite Anne Rice books and this book adds much to what has been written. She weaves history and facts with her fictional story so that the lines blur. One of the best books I've read this year. I'm a fan of the paranormal/supernatural in fiction and this is one of the best offerings right now. I also recommend in a somewhat similar yet very different vein, Robert Doherty's Area 51 series-- current paranormal in a complex and alarming story of things that border on the supernatural in 1998 America. His writing isn't as elegant as Rice's but the story is fast-paced and intriguing.
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Summary: this book drained the last life of the vampire chronicles
Review: Why does Ms Rice continue with this same tired story? We all cannot help but read it, since it started out so very good. PLEASE someone stop her I cannot bear to read another.
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Summary: Not exactly the tribute we'd hoped for the beautiful Armand.
Review: This book could easily have stopped after the burning of Marius, at which it becomes a rehash of things past, both with the vampires and Anne Rice. It finally satisfies a need for Armand's origins and his creation by Marius (perhaps Rice is trying to remind us that Armand was never a fortysomething Spaniard); this portion is erotic and enchanting. the rest merely seems a soliloquy inviting Lestat back to the stage, created from the same theophilosophical thread as Memnoch, which was more thought-provoking. The two most interesting questions are never answered: Is Bianca a vampire, and more important, why did Marius never seek Armand after his "century-long convalescence?" In any case, Lestat is up from the cathedral floor, which seems to have been the purpose of the book anyway.
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Summary: An Anne Rice Fan who has tried not to be too critical
Review: Having read the entire Vampire Armand book standing up in a bookstore for hours, I'll just have to say that the book was not worth the pain I had from all those hours of standing. I mean I used to love Armand the way Lestat saw him; a young vampire boy who had the face of a choirboy, so innocent and yet so ethereal. But Rice has destoryed the innocence of Armand by letting him annouce to the whole world that he is gay/bi.Not that I have anything againest gays but having painted Armand previously in such angelic light, it is hard to stomach that he is just another impressionable vampire, so shallowly concerned with the surface beauty of things just like Lestat was.However, even if Rice's sense of preceptive of Armand has changed here, her ingenious pace of storytelling has not deserted her yet. Just as I have read many of the reviews, the reason why most of the reviewers read her books is simply because of her reputation to write the most vivid stories. Her use of imagery has not failed her yet and she has produced another Anne Rice signature novel (which did not quite make the standards in Memnoch and Violin) Au contaire to give the woman credit, she does display some new ideas in the book which did not quite meet up with the taste of everyone. But afterall she is Anne Rice and even if her preceptive of the Vampiric World changes, one thing does not and that will always be her sense of asthetics which are so severely displayed in the book and I thought she had lost when she wrote Memnoch. In the end, I'll still have to admit that I am a true Anne Rice fan even if she has sorely disappointed in the Vampire Armand.Just don't attempt a book about David in this current frame of mind, it is just not worth it and David is first and foremost a Man of the scientific age.
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Summary: ANNE RICE HAS DONE IT AGAIN
Review: THE BOOK IS VERY INTERESTING BUT I STILL SEE ARMAND AS ANTONIO BANDERAS. THE FACT THAT I READ THE BOOKS BEFORE THE MOVIE DOES NOT HELP. I CANT PICTURE THE THINGS ARMAND DID IN THE BEG. OF THE BOOK W/ ANTONIOS FACE...W/OUT RUINING ANTONIOS FACE
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Summary: Another wonderful tale in the vampire saga
Review: The Vampire Armand is another excellent tale in the Vampire saga of Ms. Rice. I enjoyed every minute. It is a big bold telling of the life(?) and adventures Armand one of the more interesting but little utilized characters from Interview with a Vampire. However, if you are going to have a problem reading about the explicit homosexual relationships between the characters, then may I suggest something different, perhaps something by Bram Stoker.
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Summary: The Book Stinks
Review: The book stinks. There is no polite or tactful way to say it - the book stinks and it does not surprise me in the least. This is the only Anne Rice book I have ever actually bought and I knew it was a mistake when I did it. In 1976, Anne Rice created a character who was, to her, the embodiment of evil - a devil with an angel's face. She said once that she was disappointed that people did not react to Armand in the way she had hoped. You see, folks, we were supposed to hate him. We did not though, we loved him, We loved his poignancy, we loved his wounded soul, we loved his wisdom and tenacity. But we were supposed to hate him. Since that time the author, his creator, has systematically attempted to bring about that hatred by skewing, twisting and confusing this character beyond all recognition. Ms. Rice has, in her own words a "love/hate relationship" with the character of Armand and it has culminated in this latest tome of trash. I submit: "Interview With the Vampire" - Armand is the suave, mysterious and wise Master Vampire. "The Vampire Lestat" - Armand is rendered so unrecognizable I was halfway through the book before I realized he was the same character. Now he is dirty "peasant rabble" living under a stinking cemetery and owes his status in Interview to the great Oz... er Lestat. We learn he was directly responsible for Claudia's death and, Oh... and he worships Satan! Well, not really but he pretends to. "Queen of The Damned" Armand, we learn at long last, resides in the body of a seventeen year old boy and has been haunting New Orleans since the 19th century supposedly protecting Lestat whom he is supposed to hate. He appears to be learning disabled yet manages to amass a fortune that would make Don Trump jealous. Of course he does it through larceny and deceit. He also manages to nearly drive his mortal lover to suicide by luxury. "Memnoch the Devil" 'Nuff said? When next we meet, "The Vampire Armand" finally has his own say, see he didn't REALLY kill himself! And what do we learn? Welllll, he wasn't really responsible for Claudia, but he did perform Frankenstein-like experiments on her. AND he is the new poster child for the "Man/Boy Love Club"... "I'm not only a member... I'm the president." Revisionist? Why would this surprise anyone? Has she not always revised the story from book to book - and sometimes within the same book? Consider, if you will: "Interview With the Vampire". Louis states categorically... "I was a twenty-five year old man when I became a vampire and the year was 1791." The Vampire Lestat comes out in 1985 and quite suddenly Louis is twenty. I knew Vampires didn't age but going retro was quite a surprise. But, hey, people change right? They change age, coloring, stories... sometimes in a matter of a few pages. The chapters Rice expends working up characters who have little or nothing to do with the plot are a constant source of annoyance. Can ANYONE tell me what Baby Jenks in "The Vampire Lestat" had to do with anything? Or Jesse for that matter? She was Maharet's niece but did we need her entire life story for that fact to be mentioned? Outside of filler, I found no connection between them and the plot whatsoever. Notice that these characters she describes so laboriously not only play no part in their original books, they disappear into the mist never to be heard from again causing one to ponder what they were doing there in the first place. Then there are others that are seemingly important to the plot yet we have no idea who they are. Don't expect to hear any more about Benji and Sybelle, in Ms. Rice's own words... "My love/hate relationship with Armand has ENDED with "The Vampire Armand." The only thing left is he shot JFK and I don't think even she has the guts for that. After Memnoch the Devil, Ms. Rice stated quite loudly that she was done with the vampires and going off in a totally different direction. I suspect her reason was that she was burned out on the subject matter and could think of nothing else to write about it. Three years later, owing to popular demand, here she goes again! People, I suggest if Rice wishes to stop writing vampire books - WE LET HER! If, however, she persists in rehashing this same story ad nauseum, I suggest she pick up her previous books, re-read them, pick a story line and stick with it instead of confusing her audience further with each new release.
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Summary: An absolute must read for any serious reader.
Review: With out a doubt Ann Rice often gives us characters that by themselves become less than compelling. But with out a doubt she also demands that the reader see beyond their personal prejudice of sexuality, morality, and religious constructs. If a reader is so bound to their religious ideals that they are offended by any comment as to the validity of Christianity I have to say that this is not a book for them. How ever if you are a fan of Ann Rice and the Vampire series this is a must read. To me I see this book as a one rethink of the authors Christian upbringing. She has followed a path that few Christians choose to brave. The fact that she chose the epitome of evil to record this journey some how seems fitting. It seems to me that whether any of us would like to admit it or not, we live in an age beyond innocence and we are in fact seeking something that has yet to be answered. I applaud Ann Rice and her brave foray into the presentation of a very modern spiritual quest that is going on in the west today. The fact that Armand has lost his overcoat secretive aloof identity should not make us condemn him or his creator. Instead, perhaps, as Lestat rising from his melancholia, we should now on our own ask to hear the music.
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Summary: Worst of chronicles
Review: I don't agree that the series has gone down hill. I thought Pandora was actually very good, and certainly better than Body Thief, but Armand is her worst book to date. The book just struck me as not terribly well constructed, though as always Rice's incredible imagination is present. Armand's relation to Marius is interesting at first, but 75 pages of flowery lanaguage too long. It is never clear to me why Armand stays in the Paris covent for centuries (given Marius's lessons), and the end where love conquers reason...well, maybe the idea has been exhausted.
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